Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Hot Rod Forum : Hotrodders Bulletin Board forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name (usually not your first and last name), your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Insurance

Please select your insurance company (Optional)

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Additional Options

Miscellaneous Options

Automatically parse links in text

Automatically embed media (requires automatic parsing of links in text to be on).

Automatically retrieve titles from external links

Topic Review (Newest First)

04-02-2013 08:57 AM

AutoGear

Quote:

Originally Posted by boothboy

It may have been a regional thing. "Dumps" referred to short turned down tail pipes that did not reach the rear of the car. The end dumped the exhaust downward. The pipes were and turndowns were visible because the rear of the car was raised at the shackles. Why more kids weren't killed by carbon monoxide poisoning I don't know.

BB

My dad has HUGE (like 30" long or something) cherry bombs and turn downs in front of the rear axle. My older brother decided to relive his youthful exuberance and turn the turn-downs into turn-ups. He pointed them right at the floorpan...My father? Not happy, but he laughed about it later. Pointing them OUT insitead of DOWN solved a resonance issue though. Strangely he gets a lot of questions about his exhaust. "blown out cherry bombs and dumps...just like 1968."
I gotta say, I may have started this thread, but even if I didn't, I love it. The stories and pictures you guys share are incredible.

04-02-2013 08:46 AM

John long

Quote:

Originally Posted by boothboy

Boy you cot hat right! Rich kids cars!

BB

Boy, you got that right!

04-02-2013 08:33 AM

boothboy

Quote:

Originally Posted by John long

You got that right. Finally moved up to driving the delivery car for a small drug store. That made me 14 dollars a week and change. Boy I gave that 59 rambler hell.

In the day, Every 57 chevy had twin antennas on the rear quarters too..... Lowered with skirts and a back porch. I would have given my right something for one of those.

John

Boy you got that right! Rich kids cars!

BB

04-01-2013 10:32 PM

John long

Quote:

Originally Posted by boothboy

Yeah you could only make so much mowing lawns.

BB

You got that right. Finally moved up to driving the delivery car for a small drug store. That made me 14 dollars a week and change. Boy I gave that 59 rambler hell.

In the day, Every 57 chevy had twin antennas on the rear quarters too..... Lowered with skirts and a back porch. I would have given my right something for one of those.

John

04-01-2013 10:25 PM

boothboy

Quote:

Originally Posted by John long

Alot of guys did run them but I think around my area it was a question of economics. You could buy a couple of exhaust pipes, hang your mufflers and instal turn downs a lot cheaper than buying tailpipes.

John

Yeah you could only make so much mowing lawns.

BB

04-01-2013 10:22 PM

cobalt327

Lakes pipes were something of a fad in the '60s. My small hometown even had a couple cars w/them, one was my bil's '58 Chieftain. Another set was on a '57 Ford.

I never really liked continental kits, but they were the thing for awhile, too. Along with fender skirts

04-01-2013 09:51 PM

John long

Quote:

Originally Posted by boothboy

It may have been a regional thing. "Dumps" referred to short turned down tail pipes that did not reach the rear of the car. The end dumped the exhaust downward. The pipes were and turndowns were visible because the rear of the car was raised at the shackles. Why more kids weren't killed by carbon monoxide poisoning I don't know.

BB

Alot of guys did run them but I think around my area it was a question of economics. You could buy a couple of exhaust pipes, hang your mufflers and instal turn downs a lot cheaper than buying tailpipes.

John

04-01-2013 08:29 PM

boothboy

It may have been a regional thing. "Dumps" referred to short turned down tail pipes that did not reach the rear of the car. The end dumped the exhaust downward. The pipes were and turndowns were visible because the rear of the car was raised at the shackles. Why more kids weren't killed by carbon monoxide poisoning I don't know.

BB

04-01-2013 06:42 PM

John long

Quote:

Originally Posted by boothboy

Anybody remember "dumps"?

BB

If you ate referring to drag plugs I am still running them on the roadster.

04-01-2013 09:29 AM

boothboy

Anybody remember "dumps"?

BB

04-01-2013 08:53 AM

John long

Quote:

Originally Posted by 35terraplane

I know this is an old thread but I have read the whole thing and I didn't see where anyone had what I did on my first car. When I turned 15 I got my first car, a 53 chev. 2 dr. I worked in a junk yard so I got a GMC engine 6cyl to replace the 6 in it. Then what no one has mention was scavenger pipes. I put them on in 59, I had seen a car in Hot Rod or some other Mag. and thought they were cool. I had a big rake on the car, running 14" on front and 15" on back. I don't remember what size the rear ones were but they were huge. When you looked at the back of the car all you saw was 6 chrome pipes with 4 red balls with a little chain holding them together.

When I got out of the Navy, I bought a 63 SS/409/425 horse and it had chrome wheels. in 68 I got my first new car, a 68 "Hemi" Charger R/T I put CRW on it I still have the little stock hub caps that came on the car.

Bob

They were big when I was in high school Bob. About 1961 there was a black 56 Ford station wagon that sat on a sever rake with gold scallops and 4 scavanger pipes coming out inder the rear end equally spaced. Accross the tailgate he had the name Wells Fargo incorperated into the gold scallops. It used to cruise the Fricshe's Big Boy in St. Matthews which is a suburb of Louisville. In those days it was unusual to see a show quality car on the street. It sure was cool.

I think one of the things most people don't realize is the best cars on the road in those days would only be average today.

John

03-31-2013 11:59 PM

35terraplane

I know this is an old thread but I have read the whole thing and I didn't see where anyone had what I did on my first car. When I turned 15 I got my first car, a 53 chev. 2 dr. I worked in a junk yard so I got a GMC engine 6cyl to replace the 6 in it. Then what no one has mention was scavenger pipes. I put them on in 59, I had seen a car in Hot Rod or some other Mag. and thought they were cool. I had a big rake on the car, running 14" on front and 15" on back. I don't remember what size the rear ones were but they were huge. When you looked at the back of the car all you saw was 6 chrome pipes with 4 red balls with a little chain holding them together.

When I got out of the Navy, I bought a 63 SS/409/425 horse and it had chrome wheels. in 68 I got my first new car, a 68 "Hemi" Charger R/T I put CRW on it I still have the little stock hub caps that came on the car.

Bob

03-27-2013 07:08 PM

oldbogie

Quote:

Originally Posted by AutoGear

Chrome Reverse Dish rims.

I saw a 1970 Impala the other day with CRDs, no caps - just the small 'dust cap' on the front, and no cap on the rears (to show off the moser M)

I know how they're made and several old timers here (who have sadly left the party too soon) Said these rims were a royal ****** because they would wear out rear axle bearings sooner than later (Im assuming that reversing the center throws the whole thing out of balance more than the bubble balancers of the day could account for?)

My grandad was the head welder for Carrier for almost 40yrs right after WW2; and he used to do a lot of this stuff out of his barn/ fab shop. Widen rims, fix blocks and heads, split manifolds etc. He's gone now and too many questions I never thought to ask

Now I know things vary by region and that 'reliving history through pictures' can be dangerous, because people can find a picture of almost anything and insist that was 'traditional'.

So; when were these the most popular, what were the problems and what are some things you see today in regards to this that just weren't done and aren't 'period correct'.
I woulda asked on the HAMB, but their collective viewpoint seems a little skewed at times. Too many guys my age who read Ol Skool Rods, cuff their jeans and have 3 grand in tattoos and pompadours who 'know'

Reversing the rims moved the tire centerline outboard of the wheel bearings, which for good engineering on the front will be between the inner and outer wheel bearings perhaps favoring the larger inboard bearing; for the rear over the outside wheel bearing. When the tire centerline, which is also a reasonable assumption of the load carrying center for the tire, is moved toward or outboard of the bearing it creates what is called an "overhung moment" on the bearing. What this does is to multiply the force on the bearing by the distance the load center is moved away from the bearing. A common example of this is torquing a bolt where becomes easier to develop the needed load as the wrench handle used gets longer. So it is this multiplied load created by the load center distance from the bearing that kills the bearing. You, also, have to keep in mind that in the 1950s and into the early 1960s many cars still used single row ball bearings not roller bearings. Most rear axles used a single row bearing inside a leather oil seal that was lubricated by what passed for EP gear oil of the day at 90 to 140 weight, imagine getting that stuff to lubricate gears let alone a bearing 3 feet from the axle sump on a winter's morning. Up front there would be two ball bearings in the hub, a smaller outboard and larger inboard both lubricated with short fiber grease that was again contained by a leather grease seal that was also expected to keep water out. So with all these structures right on the edge of the loads they could carry in stock form it is little wonder that they survived at all when a reversed rim was hung on them.

Yes wheel balancing was usually done on a bubble balancer if at all. Although a spin balancer came into use during the 50ís that spun the assembled tire, wheel, and brake drum while on the mounted on the car, this was an expensive process that the average guy couldnít afford.

Angel hair is simply unchopped fiberglass, it was used by customizers on back window trays of their cars for some reason; as well as under the then popular aluminum Christmas tree with a spot light that illuminated the tree through a rotating color wheel.

When I was in high school, 1955-1959, I had a 53 Merc rag top, lowered with a 55 Lincoln 341 punched an eighth. It had chopped wheel wells to fit reversed rims, this was exactly the opposite of what was done in that era to close the rear wheel wells with fender skirts. The rims were painted black with chrome deep dish beauty rings, a chrome cone hub/axle cover with a chrome 5 bolt spider that covered the lug nuts with a small cone of similar shape to the larger hub/axle end cover. Living in outside of San Diego it had the obligatory TJ tuck and roll they filled it with foam rubber, I think the place was called Exclusive in Tijuana. Funny I donít think Exclusive is the right name but I canít grab it but I know/knew it, puff. Old age is a b%%%%. All I remember is they came highly recommended and did super work.

Bogie

03-27-2013 05:03 PM

Bonneville462

I have chrome reverse wheels on my 64 Bonneville, they are my favorite style wheel..

07-20-2012 09:48 AM

1971BB427

I've had the same garter belt hanging from the rear view mirror on my main rod for the last 35 yrs. It came off my wife's leg when we got married, and just recently moved it from my '71 Camaro to the Austin gasser.

We used to put garter belts around our Sun tachs or whatever brand tach you had. Never owned or wanted to own fuzzy dice, or dingle balls hanging from my window trim either.
We had a car rolled and pleated in Mexico, and not cow dung used, but the pleats went flat pretty fast. They used rolled up newspapers to fill the pleats.
Most the guys I ran with were performance oriented, so what we added to our cars were things to emulate the cars we saw at the drags. Big huge white ladder bars were way cool, as were white fenderwell headers. A roll bar (whether you needed it or not) was over the top back then! I had a black '55 Chevy gasser I built with every race item I could hang on it to make it look like a strip car. Chrome straight axle, ladder bars, roll bar, fenderwell headers. It was pretty quick, but nearly as fast as it looked!
Some guys painted everything white under the car! Inner fenderwells, rearends, headers, suspension. Rarely looked good after a few weeks without constant touch up.
14" tires were popular once all the new cars came with 14", and many guys wanted to "update" their cars to the new stuff. We used to do the poor man's redline tires when they first appeared on the scene, using a red tire crayon and spinning the tire while we held it against the sidewall. My first car was a '57 Chevy Belaire and I had 2" whitewalls with chrome reverse all around in 1966. It was very cool until the redline tires showed up, and I had to get the whitewalls reversed inside to do the redline thing. Nobody wanted wide whites back then, (looked too old to us) but narrower 1"-2" whitewalls were great.
Car fads changed so quickly back in the 60's that it was tough to keep up on a working guy's budget. The 70's weren't much better with the advent of factory muscle cars that could beat most of our built up hotrods. We all wanted the latest hot engines that came in the muscle cars, but most guys just added the emblems on their fenders and ran their old 283 or whatever. I remember guys getting the crossed flags with 396 logo and putting them on various tri 5 Chevys. Or getting the "fuel injection" emblems from Corvettes and adding that to their 4 brl. cars. Lots of posers in my high school parking lot. One guy's dad was pretty wealthy and he got a new Chevelle SS 327 4 speed in 1965. Then later that year Chevy brought out the SS 396 in the '65 Chevelle and his dad wouldn't replace his, so he just got the emblems for his 327 Chevelle.
And those dreaded rally wheels that came along in the 60's Chevys have been on my '71 Camaro since I got it in 1973. Had the rears widened, and changed the center caps, but just always liked them better than the later rally wheels mine came with. As have the old fender flares I added in 1974.

This thread has more than 15 replies.
Click here to review the whole thread.